Spider!
by MoustachingQuestions
Summary: Tracy Island gets a new resident. Gordon and Alan do not approve.


Hello everyone! Sorry for the long silence, been having a bit of a writers block lately. Here's a random ficlet that I got some inspiration from the other night with an unexpected guest. The details on the specific species of spider referenced in this fanfiction may be slightly inaccurate, as it does not live in my area of the globe. That being said, enjoy and have a wonderful morning/noon/night!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Thunderbirds Are Go! This is purely a piece of fanfiction meant for the entertainment of others.

 **WARNING:** ** _If you have a fear of spider or are generally uncomfortable with them, please, click away from here! This is your friendly warning:)_**

* * *

Gordon bolted into the den with a frightened yelp. His brothers heads shot up in surprise as the second-youngest scrabbled onto a couch, pulling his legs up and kicking an upside-down Alan in the gut in the process. Alan groaned, dropping his game and folding over, tumbling off the couch. He sat up and glared at Gordon from the floor.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"There was a spider in the hangar." Gordon stated nervously, glancing around at the three pairs of confused looks.

"A spider?" Virgil raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"It was huge!" Gordon snapped defensively. "Like, the size of my head! Maybe bigger!"

"You sure you're not exaggerating a little there, Gordon?" Scott asked, his head buried under paperwork at their father's desk and clearly bored. Alan laughed, jabbing his older brother in the side..

"Yeah! Like the beetle you found under the beach umbrella that time!"

Gordon snarled, batting away his younger brother's hand.

"And it snuck up on me!" He argued. "I was doing maintenance on Thunderbird 4 and the thing climbed up on one of the wrenches! It nearly bit me!"

"Somehow I doubt that." Virgil moved from his seat by the piano to between the two bickering Tracys and pulled Alan to his feet. "It was probably more afraid of you, than you were of it ."

"I'm telling you, it was gonna bite me!"

All attention turned to the communication hub as it came to life, and John's holographic form appeared in the centre.

"International Rescue, we have a situation."

"Yeah, no kidding!" Gordon yelled over to his older brother as Alan wriggled out of Virgil's grip. "There's a fucking massive spider down in the hangars! I swear it's like, the size of my head!"

"Gordon!" Scott barked sharply. "Language!"

"I'm pretty sure he's exaggerating." Virgil shrugged.

John raised an eyebrow.

"Like the beetle in the beach umbrella?"

"That was one time!" Gordon grumbled, hugging his knees to his chest on the couch and pouting. "And for the record I'm not exaggerating! The thing tried to bite me!"

"Somehow I doubt that," John folded his arms. "Most spiders are nonaggressive, they'll only bite when they're provoked."

"And I'd say almost crushing one while trying to fix your 'bird counts as 'provoked'." Alan snickered, perched on the seat leading down to Thunderbird 3. John sighed.

"The spider will have to wait. I've received a distress signal from the cargo ship Coulé." John started, making a sweeping motion with his arm, generating a holographic globe with a small icon pulsing in the north Atlantic Ocean, close to the Arctic. Around the icon, a swathe of weather icons flickered. He continued.

"It's a small research vessel that's spent the last six months gathering valuable information about the area's environment and inhabitants."

"What's so important about the Arctic?" Alan asked. "It's just a bunch of ice and penguins, nothing else lives there."

"The Arctic is home to a unique ecosystem of fauna and helps to control the global climate." John deadpanned. "Any information about changes in the environment could bring catastrophic changes to Earth's environment."

"And make our jobs a lot busier." Scott finished, standing from his father's desk and joining his brothers in the den.

"Exactly." John nodded. "There's a crew of five. They're safe for now, but they'll need evacuation asap."

"F.A.B John." Scott turned to the group. "Virgil, Gordon, suit up. Thunderbirds are go!"

"Nnnope!" Gordon yelped, clinging onto the side of the couch like a life preserver. "I am not going back down there if that spider's still there!"

"Gordon, this is no time for joking around!" Scott barked, hands gripping the lights that led down to Thunderbird 1. "Get your gear and get down to Thunderbird 2, we need you on this rescue!"

Gordon whined, and was unpeeled from the couch by Virgil, who sent the squidlet down the hallway before heading down the hangars himself.

"Is there anything I can do?" Alan asked, holding the seat excitedly and swinging his legs. Scott shook his head.

"Sorry Alan, not this time. You just hold down the fort for now."

"Yeah," Alan sighed, throwing Scott an expression similar to that of a sad puppy as his oldest brother disappeared down the chute.

The den was silent for a while, all his brothers scrambled for takeoff. Alan watched Thunderbird 1 takeoff, scattering the deckchairs and soaring into the horizon. A few minutes later Thunderbird 2 finally got off the ground, leaving Alan alone in the living room.

Disheartened at being unneeded, Alan picked up his games console from where he had abandoned it on the table. In the corner of his eye, something moved. Just for a second. Small, and fast. He stopped, turning and watching curiously for a few moments.

...Nothing.

Alan shrugged, and returned to his game, occasionally flicking his eyes up to the rest of his brothers, half listening to their chatter. Within a few minutes the youngest Tracy was laying on the couch, absorbed in his game, his tongue stuck out in a mix concentration and frustration at losing.

He huffed, feeling a strange sensation on the back of his calf. Thinking nothing of it, he used his other leg to scratch it, until it shuffled further up his leg. He froze, pausing the game, slowly turning his head to look down.

Sitting, surprisingly content just below his knee, was a spider. A mottled, hairy and fat body and legs as thick as a pencil, this beast was easily bigger than his hand. It's eight black eyes seemed to watch Alan with as much curiosity and horror as Alan was watching it. There was a beat of silence as both parties assessed each other.

The spider skittered up Alan's thigh. Alan screamed, thrashing around on the couch and tumbling off. He landed on his hands and knees as the arachnid continued up his leg and clinging to the bottom of his shirt. Wildly, Alan tried to brush the arachnid off, succeeding on sending it to the floor. The spider wasn't be finished though, in retaliation the creature shook itself off and scuttled under Alan's seat, disappearing from view as the rapid thump-thump of determined footsteps burst through the door.

"Alan!" Kayo called out. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Spiderunderthechair!" Alan shouted quickly, standing in the chair he was moments ago sat in and jumping over each couch in succession until he reached the one furthest from where he was sitting. Kayo stopped, staring at Alan as she caught her breath.

"You screamed," She confirmed. "Over a spider?"  
"Was it the same one that I saw?" Gordon asked quickly, everyone's collective attention being yanked from the mission to their panicked youngest brother. "Fat, huge as hell and soulless little eyes that stare into you-"

"Gordon!" Scott chastised.

"Uh-huh!" Alan nodded, pointing at the recently-vacated chair. "It crawled up my leg and then hid under the chair!"

"It crawled up your leg? It crawled up your leg!" Gordon all but shrieked, enough that even Virgil seemed to flinch and glare at his younger brother. "That's terrifying! It must have followed me from the hangar!"  
"You brought it up here?" Alan squeaked back, watching the other chair cautiously. "Why?"  
"I didn't mean to! I was just trying to get away from it and-"  
"Guys!" John interrupted. "Neither the time, nor the place. Focus on the mission, we need to get those people out. Alan, it's one spider. I know it spooked you, but it's harmless." He quietly murmured. "Probably."

"Probably!" Alan barked. "What do you mean probably?"

Kayo rolled her eyes as the Tracy's bickered, and sauntered over to the offending chair that supposedly hid the offending creature. With barely any hesitation, she knelt down and peered under the chair.

"Alan." She stated bluntly, snapping him out of his panic. "There's no spider under here. Are you sure you saw one?"  
" _It's gone?"_ Alan and Gordon shrieked simultaneously, sharing a terrified look.

"Where could it have gone?"  
"It better not be under the couch now!"  
"It's just a spider you two," Scott snapped, having clearly lost his patience with his youngest brothers. "Can we _please_ focus on what we're doing?"

"Yeah! Yeah," Gordon gave his little brother a pitiful look and mouthed 'sorry bro' before disappearing. Meanwhile Kayo placed the paper and glass on the table and sat beside Alan.

"Of all the things for International Rescue to be afraid of," She chucked. "It's spiders."  
"They're so creepy!" Alan argued. "They hang around in dark, dingy places and have really spindly legs and beady little eyes and just-" Alan shuddered.

"Kinda like you." Kayo joked, poking the youngest Tracy in his side.

"Hey! I am not like a spider!" He bit back, shoving her back.

"Oh really? You hang around in dark, dingy places like the hangar-" She started, grabbing Alan in a playful headlock and continuing. "And look at you! All arms and legs!"

"Hey! Lemme go! Kayo!"

"Your eyes aren't very beady though, I suppose I'll have to give you that." She looked down at Alan, trying to wriggle his way out of her iron-sided headlock. A quick movement on her left drew Kayo's attention.

Huh. That is a big spider.

"It's back!" Alan yelped. "I told you I wasn't imagining it! It's huge!"

"Oh please, it's not that big." Kayo chuckled, keeping an eye on the spider as she moved to the kitchen, taking out a decent-sized bowl. She carefully approached the beast on the carpet and with a lightning strike, entrapped it within the glass dome. The arachnid panicked for a minute, circling the edge of its prison and attempting to climb it with little success.

Eventually, it settled, defeated. Kayo watched the creature as it became acquainted with that particular area of the carpet. She hummed.

"John?"

"What is it Kayo?"  
"I'm sending you scans and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a Huntsman spider?"

"A-what-now?" Alan hid behind Kayo, glaring at the strange creature scrabbling around.

"Kayo's right. That's a Huntsman spider, you can tell by it's legs." John gestured pulled up a larger image of the creature. "See how it's legs extend forward like a crab's?"  
"I don't care what it is! Is it poisonous?" Alan asked. "Like, if it bit me would I die?"  
"While it is venomous, it's not deadly to humans. Painful, but not necessarily deadly."  
"I'm going to put it outside." Kayo announced.

" _How?"_ Alan yelped. "You're not going to just-"

He scrambled away from the den as Kayo removed the bowl. The spider made no movement, it remained still until Kayo placed one hand in front of it, and the other behind. Carefully, she coaxed it onto her hand and striding out onto the veranda, released the spider out onto the foliage. "There."  
"No more spider?" Alan asked quietly, watching her from the house.

"No more spider." Kayo confirmed. The tension in Alan's shoulders visibly lessened, as if a weight was removed.

"Thank god!" He sighed. He returned to the den, hopping back down onto a couch. The rest of his brothers had gathered and having completed their mission, were returning home. Gordon leant forward, eager for the news.

"Well? Did you get it?"

"It's gone." Alan confirmed.

"Finally! That thing freaked me out! I mean, it's not so bad now that I know it's not gonna eat me or anything. But it's still creepy. I swear I saw it lurking around here earlier, I'm glad Kayo caught it instead of me…" Gordon babbled, oblivious to the company having crawled up onto his shoulder. Beside his hologram, Virgil's eyebrows drew together in concern. Alan looked over to Kayo, who smirked mischievously.

"Gordon?"  
"Yeah?"

"Look right." Kayo told him simply, and watched as the aquanaut's face contorted in horror at his newfound company. Alan shrugged, the beginnings of a smirk on his lips as his next older brother shrieked.

"Sorry bro."


End file.
